Bloom Sprouts Handmade, founded by maker and mother Hannah Beal, is a small business rooted in a love of craftsmanship, sustainability and slow fashion for little ones. Guided by her lifelong passion for sewing and inspired by generations of creative women in her family, Hannah creates beautifully made, timeless pieces using natural fabrics and thoughtful design. What began as a creative outlet during maternity leave has grown into a gorgeous brand that reflects her values, her motherhood journey and her commitment to offering families high-quality, sustainable clothing and accessories. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind her business, the challenges she has overcome, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
I have always had a passion for creating things. I learnt to sew when I was young, with guidance from the very talented women in my family. My mum was always making the soft furnishings in our house, and my great nan was a very talented knitter and seamstress. My nan was also fantastic at sewing and even had matching sewing machines with my mum!
When on maternity leave with my second daughter, I fell in love with creating things again. I would make her bonnets, booties, and clothing.
When attending mother and baby groups, I would get lots of comments on the things I had made for her, and I quickly had people asking if I would make things for them too!
I knew I wanted to use natural, sustainable fabrics wherever possible, and wanted this to be a core value for my business. I didn’t want to contribute to fast fashion, instead creating a capsule-based collection of clothing, that could be mixed and matched with basics.
I saw an opportunity to be more present at home with my daughters and grabbed it with both hands!
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
I began with a very small range of products, booties, bonnets and some hair accessories. It took a lot of confidence to put things I had made up for sale and it took a long time for me to actually take the plunge and do it.
I started with a few local craft markets and had a shelf in a local emporium.
I also set up an online marketplace page and social media pages to try and build brand awareness.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The biggest breakthrough was launching clothing items to compliment the accessories I had been making, alongside my own website. This took a while for me to design, and to source the right fabrics to create my vision for the brand.
I’ve learnt a lot over the time since I started my business and definitely have a lot more to learn!
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
This is a tough one. I’ve had my youngest daughter at home up until she turned 3, so I was working lots in the evenings and weekends – kind of the opposite of what I was trying to do at the beginning!
I was so lucky to be able to have her home all that time, and to be able to have something that would be so flexible around caring for her. Now that I’ve being doing it for a little while and she is now doing a couple of days at pre school, I find a way of being mega productive on those days! My eldest is at school, so I try not to do any work between collecting her and when they both go to bed, to savour the time we have together.
I feel truly lucky that I get to do the school runs, attend school events and be so flexible with when I can work.
I try and keep the weekends as free from work as possible so that we can enjoy adventures, and I limit the number of events I attend to keep this time as free as possible to be present for the girls’ childhood.
